IMPHAL, March 1:The hearing of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed at an Imphal Bench of Gauhati High Court against the appointment of five MLAs of the 10th Assembly as Parliamentary Secretaries by Manipur Government which was have been held today has been deferred.
According to sources, following the PIL petition being admitted, the hearing had begun at this court from 7 January 2013.
In a ruling by the court, a show cause notice was issued to the officials of Manipur Government who are the main respondents of PIL petition.
The respondents of the case including Secretaries and Chief Secretaries of the Manipur Legislative Assembly were to submit their replies to the show cause notice within February 25, 2013 but had failed to do so.
However, Keisam Meghachandra, Mairembam Prithibiraj, Victor Keishing, Vungzalian Valte and Md Amin Shah, M Prithiviraj of Youth Affairs and Sports and Tourism who were appointed as Parliamentary Secretaries filed an affidavit as a reply to the show cause notice yesterday.
As the affidavit was filed yesterday, the case concerning the Parliamentary Secretaries was among the cases to be taken up on the same day.
But the court sitting did not take place since a condolence meeting on demise of senior Advocate, Ahanthem Nilamani Singh was held. The court has since deferred the case to the bench next week though a hearing for the case was included in a division bench, comprising of two justice of the court.
Mention may be made that main respondents have not given the reply to the show-cause notice.